During our long journeys in the car to the annual family holiday in Wales, my brother and I would argue the whole way, (as all siblings do). To keep us quiet my Dad told us to play "spot the dead donkey"; thus the journey was spent looking out of the window for a donkey on its back with all legs in the air!

Gullible in "East Anglia"

When one of my pets would die my mother would tell me it ran away so I wouldn't feel bad. I actually believed that all my pets ran away until I was about 19 when she told me the truth about all the pets I ever had.

Tiffany

When I was little I had a pet gerbil, and gerbils don't seem to live that long........so my gerbil would die then somehow it would be back a few days later. This went on for years. I thought it was the damnedest thing that these animals died and then returned to life after a couple days, and that only I seemed to know this. One time my friend's hamster died and she was heartbroken, so I told her to get a gerbil cuz they're just like hamsters, except they come back from the dead. It wasn't till much later that I relized my dad had just been replacing the gerbils before he thought I'd notice it was gone.

Rae

I had an ant farm when I was a child. Somehow I managed to name most of the ants, as if I could tell them apart. One of the ants got caught on the little green plastic bridge when I poured the ants into the ant farm. He stayed on the bridge all the time, never moving, so I named him Lazy. I didn't realize he was dead until the other ants dragged him off and "buried" him a week later.

Anon

my family's cat, tyronne, died when my sister was 5. my parents burried him under the big evergreen in our backyard. for years my sister thought that tyronne was just walking around under the ground in the backyard--that being dead meant that you lived underground. when we had moles that pushed up the yard, she thought that was evidence that tyronne was playing and jumping up!

christine

When I was about three-years-old, my parents had a friend named Kevin. My dad also had two pet hermit crabs. One day, I looked into the tank and they were gone, so I asked my mom what happened to them; she told me they had gone to heaven, but I misunderstood what she had said, and began telling everyone that my dad's hermit crabs went to Kevin's.

Megan

when my brother and I where kids, we used to have a dog called Jewls. She had been in the family for 16 years. When she died I was 8 and my brother 5. My father explained to us how Jewls had gone to heaven. The next day my mother was surprised to see my brother throwing sticks high up in the air, so she asked him what he was doing and he answered: I am playing with Jewls

Marissa

When I was 9 my cat called coco died of cancer. My parents told me that cancer was a angel that came and took her away because they wanted her in heaven because they liked he so much. then my next cat called honey got knocked down when she was 2. and my parents said to me that god killed her because he wanted her for his pet. So I went outside on to the street and yelled "SHES MY CAT NOT YOURS YOU DUMB GOD" i have been having bad luck ever since!!!

Heather May

When I was about 8 my dog got hit by a car and had to be put to sleep. My parents explained the vet would give her a needle and she would just go to sleep forever. I was so upset about this that I would cry for hours at night. My parents thought I was just upset that the dog was dead but really it was because I thought if she slept forever instead of dying that she'd never go to heaven. I didn't know why they wouldn't just let her die.

I still miss Maggie

I used to believe that dogs and cats would be able to speak to us when we all died and went to heaven. This is why sometimes dogs would stare at you - they were paying close attention to what you were doing so they could remember for the afterlife. I was particularly embarrassed about what my childhood dog might reveal about me, so I would tell her lots of stories to try and confuse her about what was made up and what actually happened.

Nugs

When I was about 8 years old my beloved ginger tom cat Stanley died, so I wrote him a letter telling him how much I missed him and loved him.

I tore up the letter and put it in an envelope on which I wrote a message to my postman asking him to burn it.
I thought that if the letter was destroyed then it would go to heaven and god would read it to my cat.

I found out years later that my dad had found the envelope on the front step and taped it back together again and has kept it in his bedside table ever since.

Helen

When I was young, my very old dog had to be put to sleep. We were with him, and the injection the vet used was a bright pink fluid. From that day on, I refused to wear, buy, or even look at anything pink, because I thought the pink itself had killed him.

Rew

My cousins pet rat - Ratty - died when she was four. They buried Ratty in the garden and had a funeral for her. Bethany turned to her Mum and asked "If we water Ratty will she grow back?"

Gem

I used ot believe that when people were buried, their bodies were like seeds that caused tombstones to grow. I waited and waited for that tombstone to come up when we buried my dog in the backyard. Yeah, it never did.

Anon

My little niece asked me an astonishing question one day: "Can you get to heaven in a garbage truck?" When I asked her why she wanted to know, she said, "Because Daddy put my dead kitten in the trash." I told her that, yes, beyond a doubt, that garbage truck took Fluffy right to heaven!

Auntie

When I was about 8 or 9, while at school, my cat passed away. My Mom didn't want me to know what happened, so to spare us the pain and grief, she told us He had gotten married and taken a job in Arizona. (We lived in Chicago) For years after, I was mad at my cat for not writing or calling!

I didn't find out until 2 years ago what had really happened!
I am 35 Now!

Jules

When my brother and I were at a school fair we both won goldfish. His died in a couple of days and the next day when I came home from school- there was my fish, laying on my desk...with a fork through it. I cried and cried and my brother told me that he had seen our cat do it because it was jealous. I believed him for years!

April

When I was little, I believed that I could call Heaven and talk to my dog that had passed away.. After I said my prayers each night I would "call" Heaven (with an imaginary phone that apparently had a direct connection) and ask to speak to "Queen"... I would even wait patiently while God put me on hold so He could go find her and tell her she had a call.. When she finally came on the line I would tell her random facts about my day and that I loved her and missed her very much and would talk to her tomorrow night.

Kimber

I once won a goldfish at the fair that only lasted a couple of weeks before it died, so my parents and I flushed it down the toilet. After that I thought that you could flush away any pets that you didn"t want anymore. My gran used to have a little black poodle that I hated so when I was round at her house once I tried to flush it down the toilet.

Debs

When my niece was around 3 her rabbit died. She was upset because no one would tell her what had really happened. She ended up going to my husband and asking him. He told her that her bunny had gone to college and that it would come back in 5 years after graduating as a full grown rabbit. She still believes it and is counting down the days until she's 8 (She'll be 7 in November).

Kate